Dr. Jennifer DUSDAL

I am Research Scientist and elected Head of the Institute of Education & Society, board member of the Department of Social Sciences at UL, and associated Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Leibniz Center for Science and Society (LCSS), Leibniz University of Hannover. I was trained in leading research institutions in the field of higher education research and science studies (research stays in the USA & Germany). In 2017, I finalized my Dissertation in Sociology at the University of Luxembourg with “excellent”. My thesis was published by Campus Verlag in 2018––and has been awarded with the prestigious Ulrich-Teichler-Prize for Outstanding Dissertations 2018 of the German Association of Higher Education Research. After internal and external evaluation, in 2020 I was awarded the right to supervise doctoral candidates as a thesis director in Social Sciences (Autorisation à diriger les recherches).

During my PhD, I became expert in the comparative analysis of higher education and science systems, scientific capacity building, and the quantitative analysis of science production––I developed a new matrix to analyze organizational forms involved in science production. Now, I support policy relevant research to facilitate new interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches across different UL entities and with external partners to kick-off research at the forefront of research on the study of science. I am motivated to gain a deeper understanding of the factors driving science, such as international collaborative networks by uniquely combining theories from sociology of science, classic bibliometric key performance indicators, and big data to analyze scientific information (data mining and network analysis from computer science).

I am associated supervisor in the interdisciplinary Doctoral Training Unit Data-Driven Computational Modelling and Applications and the Doctoral School in Humanities and Social Sciences, and Vice-Program Director of the M.A. program Social Sciences and Educational Sciences. I am steering committee member of the Scienteens Lab, a research lab for high-school students in Luxembourg.

I am Lead-PI of the interdisciplinary, cross-faculty SEEDS project on scientization events to create a research network of international experts and established and emerging UL resear­chers from different disciplines and faculties as well as external experts to generate knowledge in a novel field: the study of scientization, because we know little about how scientific breakthroughs diffuse and reshape (multi)disciplinary fields, ultimately impacting society at large. I was Co-PI of the international Q-KNOW project on developing relational quality through collaborative networks, and participate as external partner in its follow-up project T-PATHS on knowledge transfer. Here, we investigate(d) how scientific (co-)publications of researchers and their affiliations have developed over time, and which impact interorganizational collaborative networks and collaboration portfolios among organizations in Germany had to enhance scientific quality. We also study transfer paths of knowledge flow from basic research to its application. Further, I am Management Committee Member and Luxembourg’s national contact point for a Horizon Europe COST Action on the future of European higher education and research.

To intensify international scholarly communication, and to raise the societal impact of research on the public, I passionately organize the Lecture Series “Science of Science in the Spotlight” since 2020. This lecture series serves as a forum for intellectual exchange on topics related to the field of science of science from a wide range of disciplines. I am the treasurer and founding member of the Luxembourg Educational Research Association.

I am member of the Science Policy discussion group at the LCSS and in the Section “Science and Technology Research” of the German Sociological Association. Further, I was an advisor for educational accreditation processes, a member of the selection committee of scholarship holders of the Hans-Boeckler-Foundation, and have represented junior scholars in university committees. I am member of the Working Group on Science Studies “Science and Higher Education”.